Infrared light provides scientists with temperature data and that's important when trying to understand the strength of storms. NASA's Aqua satellite provided those cloud top temperatures of Category 4 Hurricane Sergio in the Eastern Pacific Ocean.

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder or AIRS instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Hurricane Sergio on Oct. 3 at 5:17 a.m. EDT (0917 UTC) and analyzed the storm in infrared light. The higher the cloud tops, the colder and the stronger the storms. Infrared light as that gathered by the AIRS instrument can identify the strongest sides of a tropical cyclone.

AIRS temperature data showed Sergio had intensified that morning, with the eye becoming better defined while embedded in very cold cloud tops. AIRS detected those very cold cloud tops were as cold as or colder than 207 Kelvin (minus 87 degrees Fahrenheit/minus 66.1 degrees Celsius). Storms with cloud top temperatures that cold have the capability to produce heavy rainfall.

At 5 a.m. EDT (0900 UTC) on Thursday, Oct. 4 the National Hurricane Center or NHC noted "Sergio's intensity is estimated to have increased just a little more this morning, and it remains a powerful category 4 hurricane."

The eye of Hurricane Sergio was located near latitude 14.4 degrees north, longitude 118.8 degrees west. That's about 825 miles (1,330 km) southwest of the southern tip of Baja California, Mexico. Sergio was moving toward the northwest near 8 mph (13 km/h), and this motion is expected to continue today. A turn toward the west-northwest and west at a slightly slower forward speed is expected Friday and Saturday.

Related Stories

Infrared light provides scientists with temperature data and that's important when trying to understand the strength of storms. NASA's Aqua satellite provided those cloud top temperatures of Category 4 Hurricane Sergio in ...

NASA's Aqua satellite peered into Hurricane Sergio with infrared light to determine if the storm was intensifying or weakening. Infrared data showed cloud top temperatures were getting warmer on the western half of the storm, ...

Southwest forests may decline in productivity on average as much as 75 percent over the 21st century as climate warms, according to a University of Arizona-led research report published in Nature Communications on Dec. 17.

Machine-learning research published in two related papers today in Nature Geoscience reports the detection of seismic signals accurately predicting the Cascadia fault's slow slippage, a type of failure observed to precede ...

Factories mass produce goods for society and many emit greenhouse gases in the process, but not all are run by humans. Some factories lie underground and are operated around the clock by tireless six-legged workers.

A team of researchers from Australia and China has changed a variable used in an equation to project precipitation as the climate changes, and in so doing, has found that the planet may not become drier as many have suggested. ...

0 comments

Please sign in to add a comment.
Registration is free, and takes less than a minute.
Read more

Click here to reset your password.
Sign in to get notified via email when new comments are made.